Guest Feature - Iain Sarjeant

Out of the Ordinary developed from wandering, exploring, discovering, and observing – slowing down and spending time in everyday places. It reflects my interest in human landscapes and the way we interact with our surroundings - through it I have developed a passion for documenting the overlooked, for finding visual interest in seemingly ordinary locations. The series contains work from across the country, city centres to remote communities - it’s been a fascinating journey through everyday Scotland, documenting the social landscapes of the country at a time of great change.

My interest has always been in landscape or ‘place’ in the widest sense, and how people interact with their surroundings. This can be anything from remote communities in the Highlands to the centre of major cities. But of course any photograph is a combination of document and personal response, and my work also explores my own relationship with the landscape.

On previous projects I had tended to work in a slower, more reflective way, but Out of the Ordinary has seen me adopt a more spontaneous, instinctive approach, often moving through places reacting quickly to elements within the landscape – in many ways more like street photography than landscape photography.

Iain Sarjeant is a photographer and publisher based in the Scottish Highlands. His photography explores both natural and human environments, and often the interaction between the two. Iain is the founder and editor of Another Place and Another Place Press. He has published numerous books of his work, including most recently his 2021 Out of the Ordinary calendar, and his Alpes-Maritimes zine, which are available to purchase at Another Place Press.

iainsarjeant.co.uk

Barry Falk on Location - Undiagnosed

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, during his daily walk for exercise, photographer Barry Falk has been photographing his friends and neighbours close to where he lives. We had a chance to ask him about his series  ‘Undiagnosed below’.

Can you tell us briefly about your photographic practice, what you are primarily interested in as a photographer?

My photographic practice has changed and developed a lot since I first began. When I started in photography I sought out spaces that I felt captured certain states of mind, that acted as visual metaphors for a fragile or ambiguous relationship to the world, such as underground bunkers & car parks, empty buildings & abandoned buildings and the edges of the landscape, what I termed Peripheral Landscapes. I developed this further by travelling to and documenting places that had undergone significant traumatic experiences,  focussing on locations in Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. These locations held a sense of memory related to trauma and atrocity. I am currently working on a long-term project focused upon the Jewish narrative, exploring how history can be both intensely remembered whilst memory of events are also reframed or can be buried by collective amnesia. I have made a move from capturing empty spaces, devoid of people, to a much more varied approach that mixes portraiture, landscape and other forms of documenting.

 Tell us about your latest project 'Undiagnosed' - how did it begin and why did you start the series?

In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic I decided, like many photographers, to try to capture some of the atmosphere of these strange times. My project rationale was to photograph as many of my friends and neighbours as possible within walking distance of where I live; one photoshoot per daily walk for exercise. I restricted the shots to people framed within their front doors , squeezed within their hallway, or stood in front gardens, on the threshold between inside and outside, the safe and the unsafe. I was always careful to maintain social distance. I was looking for a series of expressions: serious, pensive, reflective, quizzical (pleased to maintain a to see me!). I sought to capture the psychological effect of the pandemic by highlighting how the normal has become the weird. The title Undiagnosed refers to the many without a diagnosis, not in quarantine yet still socially distant and for some, isolated by circumstances and government guidelines around public safety. More to the point, these were my friends and neighbours whose homes were now off limits, making the situation even more disconcerting. The familiar was now very unfamiliar, and unlike other types of ‘war’ the hunkering together had to be done apart. These images were taken in the 3 weeks post Prime Minister’s speech on 16th March 2020.

Can you share your photographic process, how you work and how you interact with people to make your images.

My most recent projects have focussed primarily on conversations with people leading to portraiture. I initially research a topic, then seek out possible contacts (contacts who could introduce me to other contacts) and set up meetings. For instance, my recent MAP6 Collective project in Finland involved initially writing to the Lord Mayor of a small municipality which I wished to document. This led to gaining further contacts via the Mayor and sending out requests with my project idea to a wide range of people whom I wished to meet. This set up an itinerary before arriving, which led to a series of recorded interviews and subsequent portraits. This method of working has developed out of a long-term project I have been involved in researching the Jewish narrative in Eastern Europe. This informed approach has been necessary for me to gain a detailed and deepened understanding of the subject I am photographing. My method is to talk to a wide range of people, from academics and researchers to local people in towns and villages. For Undiagnosed I sent out messages with a simple request: I wanted to photograph people whilst maintaining far distance, in their front doorways looking out (informal pose: messy hair and embarrassing slippers would be fine). The response was overwhelmingly affirmative: people wanted to be a part of a collective project, to be noticed in this time of social distancing.

How do you envision the work when it is finished?

Finishing a project is never straight-forward for me, as projects generate ideas which I often feel compelled to follow. However, my project Undiagnosed is a purposefully restricted project: it requires local friends within walking distance with no more than two shots per person/family. In addition the portraits are similar, keeping to a prescribed method, and begin to repeat themselves the longer the project continues.

Other projects are more complex in terms of completion: my project in Poland and Ukraine, restricted only by my ability to find time and finances, is a project that generates a great deal of potential ideas and opportunities. To bring this project to completion requires making a decision to move it into a different phase: from the documenting process to creating an exhibition, holding a talk and then eventually book production.

What's next for you and MAP6?

MAP6 have recently returned from Lapland, our second trip to Finland. I feel that I need to consolidate the ideas and images I gathered and to focus upon the collaborative process of exhibiting. I am very keen to exhibit the work in the host country, to generate interest and gain feedback from the Finnish people.

MAP6 in Rovaniemi

MAP6 photographers Richard Chivers, Rich Cutler, Barry Falk, Raoul Ries and Paul Walsh visited Rovaniemi in Lapland last week, coincidentally during the major outbreak of the coronavirus. Upon arrival, like many others, we were left stranded without a flight home as the situation deteriorated and the city closed down around us. Most of the meetings we had arranged there were cancelled, so for the most part we were unable to continue our individual projects. In light of this we decided to make a group collaborative project about our experience during this time. As we waited for our rescheduled flight home we spent time documenting the town and meeting local inhabitants, and also visiting tourists who like us were in the precarious position of waiting for flights home as the borders closed.

Richard Chivers was photographing around the south-west part the city in the industrial sector, continuing to document the timber industry for his series Green Gold. Aside from this, he made a series of architectural studies of the city both during the day and at night.

Barry Falk made a number of trips out of the city to local communities and townships, where he photographed those who lived there and tourists who were stranded due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Rich Cutler worked primarily alone in the forests that surround Rovaniemi, capturing intimate still life's in the landscape, as a continuation of the work he made during his previous trip to Helsinki. During the night he went out to capture the darkness as it descended on the city.

Raoul Ries continued his photographic study of social space with a series of street portraits taken throughout Rovaniemi. After sunset he captured empty retail centres and malls in a series of colour architectural night studies.

Over the next few weeks we will start to share some of the images we made in Rovaniemi as we continue to edit the work. The coronavirus outbreak presented us with many problems as photographers, and made us question if we should in fact be making photographs at all during such a challenging time. However, creating work became cathartic and helped us to deal with the uncertainty of our circumstances and the precariousness of being stranded far from family and friends. We were also mindful of social distance and minimising human contact to avoid potentially spreading the virus.

The Collective Grows

New Members

MAP6 are proud to welcome Barry Falk, Jonty Tacon and Toby Coulson as the newest members of the MAP6 photography collective. MAP6 was formed in late 2011 and after lots of discussion about our exciting and ambitious journey ahead, we felt it was time to add to our membership and are thrilled to have found three extremely talented photographers to join the collective. 

Focusing on the peripheral views of the city, Barry portrays such spaces with a stillness and beauty. ‘Barry Falk’s photographs effectively convey the edginess and grubbiness and visual intrigue of ordinary spaces. He demonstrates how seeming emptiness can be evocative, and can have character and feeling.’ – Louise Marlborough: Brighton Fringe Open Text 2011
BARRY FALK


Jonty’s passion for cycling has lead him high into the mountains of Europe tracing the routes of the most iconic of professional cycling events. Equally fascinating has been his long term project documenting the local race scene in and around Brighton, UK – where the passion or the organisers, officials, volunteers and cyclists show a true nature of sport, hardship, joy and pain.
JONTY TACON


“I’m drawn to the unexpected, to seeing new places and meeting new people, this is what interests me about personal projects.” Toby, twice shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Portrait prize, creates stunning portraits that seem to be able to communicate with the viewer in subtle and direct ways, suspended in a state of grace. 
TOBY COULSON

Toby, Barry, Jonty – welcome to MAP6!